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One of my favourite movies trilogies of all time is Back To The Future, filmed in the 1980’s and starring Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd. You can all look up the series on Wikipedia, read the plot and the synopsis of all three movies if you want to. But I suggest that for this iconic movie series, you’d have to trust me on this if you haven’t seen it and go out and buy the DVD or Blu-Ray yourself, so that you could binge what I reckon is one of the most confronting and engaging movies series of all time- even to this day. This series is one of my favourites because of its warmth, heart, comradery, and the fact that it speaks about issues still prevalent today, such as trying to be a better version of ourselves that we were before, standing up for yourself and not letting others walk all over you, and being there for each other through thick and thin just like best friends Marty McFly and Doc Brown. If you want the cliff notes version- the story is about Marty who lives in Hill Valley in 1985, who after witnessing his scientist friend be gunned down and left for dead by terrorists, inadvertently travels back to 1955 in Doc’s time travel car that he created. There he accidently prevents his parents from meeting, and hence the premise of the first film was that Marty would try to get his parents back together all the while ensuring that he could convince Doc to make revisions on the time machine and get him back to the present and back to his life in 1985.

You know how sometimes you have a plan of what you want to do, and how you’re going to go about it, and then in the end, the plan is uprooted and everything changes in an instant? Maybe that’s how I felt leading up to this blog post that I’m embarking on right now. And if I am to be completely honest, I wasn’t planning on writing about this particular artist today. I had everything planned out- for the next few weeks in fact, and I knew what I was going to write about, and it wasn’t about Rebecca St. James. Nevertheless, God always has His ways of showing up in the 11th hour, in places that you know you may not necessarily expect Him to. And He did- and as I write about Rebecca’s music and how it has been instrumental in my own life, and how the music has shaped my own ethos, beliefs, way of life, and outlook on people in general, I am thankful to how God can even use the things that have impacted us in the past, to remind us indeed of the past, as we understand that the things that have got us from then to now, still impact us to this day, creeping in our everyday lives when we may not think they can. Rebecca’s music has been a blessing to my own life in the last decade and a half since I first heard her passionate vocals in the mid-2000s. An Australian from a big family who uprooted themselves in the early 1990s to settle in to living in America (and Rebecca then subsequently moved into CCM ministry at the early age of 17 in 1994!); Rebecca’s place in Christian music, as well as even music in general has shaped the 1990s and the 2000s in ways that even I know I can’t even fathom- her trademark voice, and her youthful and energetic demeanour is what drew me to her music in the first place, and is what continues to bring me back to her music time and time again as the years continue to roll on.

As I reflect upon the 50 blogs I have written so far in my journey of exploring a myriad of musical genres and understanding that regardless of genre, God Himself can use whatever, whomever, and whichever, to show people things about themselves that maybe need to be addressed, or even show people things about Himself that people indeed need to address as well; I’ve come to realise a few things. One things for certain, I don’t know much about music that I initially thought I did coming into this experimental project. I was humbled, in a good way. I delved into the genres of country, exploring the likes of Lady Antebellum, Keith Urban, Carrie Underwood and Shania Twain, to name a few, who have made a tremendous impact on today’s society and music in general, while I also dived deep down into the unknown with the realisation that rap/hip-hop wasn’t as scary as I initially thought, with the exploration of Christian hip-hop (CHH) crossover icon Lecrae. I immersed myself into the pioneers of CCM in artists like DC Talk, Steven Curtis Chapman, Carman and Michael W. Smith; while also taking to the artists that themselves have had quite a big of success in both CCM and mainstream- Switchfoot, Skillet and needtobreathe. Now here I am about to move into my 51st post (wow, already more than ½ way in my journey through this list- then it’s off to the timeless ones!), and I realise this- that the more you don’t know about a certain particular genre, or a certain artist, or the more you realise you don’t know about the things that you don’t know, you start to develop a bit of a hunger to know, to understand, to travel deep within the crevices and cracks of whatever genre you are discovering next, and realise that every musical genre out there, no matter how foreign it may be to you, will still impact someone in the world on their journey in life.

Have you ever stopped to wonder about influence, impact, popularity, determination, poise, grace, just a general sense of identity, self, command, authority, and how you carry yourself? I reckon it all comes down to confidence, and sometimes acting like you’re successful even if you’re not. But more often than not recently, the thought has indeed crossed my mind of ‘when’ is it in life that we become aware of these big important things that we need to talk about, and ‘when’ is it in life that we start acting as if we do have the ability to change the world in whatever way we’re called to do? The other week I wrote about how in this time of global pandemic and how we as humans are stuck at home quarantining, staying safe and healthy- about how we should try to see the good, the glory in the grind; this past week my thoughts drove back to that Louie Giglio sermon- which by the way I reckon is one of the most relevant sermons you could ever watch this year!- and to the point of when is it that we realise that we ourselves can make a difference in this world, no matter how big or small we are, and no matter how little we think of ourselves?

Do you often wonder why you’re in the valley sometimes? Why you’re in the same valley that you reckon, or maybe even believe, you’ve been there since the dawn of time; and the same valley that you’re certain and convinced that you’ll stay there until the day you pass? Do you often wonder why life isn’t going the way you thought it would be at this very moment, or why the whole world seems against you? You get the sense that fate, or destiny, or whatever deity or higher power that is up there (that you probably know for a fact is up there in the heavens floating about, but don’t really give the time of day, except for at Christmas or at Easter or at Ramadan or Hannukah or any other token religious festival and occasion) doesn’t care at all about you and your problems and your situations and your relationships with others, or your needs, or your wants and desires… otherwise he, or she, would be actively doing something, anything to create a positive change in your life. For the past umpteen years, it has seemed like you’re on your own, in the valley for eternity, with no one around you to keep you safe, or make you feel good, or make life worth living. So do you wonder why you’re seemingly stuck in the valley with no way out?

I don’t know about you but sometimes I feel like a song can totally change the mood of a room, or it can lift the spirits of the entire world’s population at any given point in time. As I’ve said time and time again in blogs previously written, there is power in the song that may not be present in an encouraging ted talk, or a sermon. Songs have a licence in a certain moment to be the catalysts of positive change, to delve down deep into the soul and to ask the questions that maybe no one has ever dared to ask before. To challenge our very being when other conversations and introspective discussions have failed to do so, because whether we agree with this notion or not, this much is true- songs have power over us in a way that no other entertainment medium has. We listen to music at all hours of the day- morning, noon, afternoon and night. Songs travel down deep into our psyche, make us realise things about ourselves that we may not have been privy to, to begin with. Creating a song, to put it blunt, almost gives you licence to speak about almost every topic that can be judged as being ‘taboo’ in a sense, if said out loud and not tied to music- politics, death and religion, the three major things that cannot be spoken about at a dinner table? Discussed in song, I’m sure, at one point in history or another. Faith, doubt, uncertainty, love, loneliness, worry, hope, joy, and everything else in between; are all given the go-ahead when it comes to songs, music, and what is given the go-ahead in terms of what topics can be availed to the masses.

I’m very good at procrastinting, aren’t I? Anyway, the time has come everyone for another installment in this ‘Best Of 2019’ series. Even though we are more than 3 months late, I reckon today is the perfect time for us to reveal our 20 most inspiring EP’s of 2019- also especially since we all need our EP’s and albums to help us get through this whole quarantine process. So… without further ado, here is our list of 20 EP’s which have inspired and encouraged us!

I’ve realised a couple of things since I started this blog post series over a year ago. One: I am totally unprepared, in a general sense, for these blog posts, and I don’t pretend to know more than I do know at any one moment. I am but an amateur in terms of knowing about these artists, or these songs for that matter. I try and fumble through each and every week, sometimes I write more on one artist than another, sometimes I connect with an artist and their music more so than another, and I try and write my two cents. At the end of the day, hopefully I gain some kind of wisdom or appreciation for music that for me, is outside my comfort zone. For this blog post list is merely my own opinion, and various other artists outside the list, could easily, on any other given day, be inside. And that’s just life. Second: I am continuously amazed, impressed and inspired by the music I’ve heard over the last year or so, that I’ve noticed that lately, I am challenged and confronted, comforted and encouraged, and just plain reminded of how God can use anything and anyone, including music that I may not have listened to that much throughout my own life, or music that I may not initially enjoy, from artists that may not have been on my radar to begin with; to bring about my own good and His glory, as I learn more about myself, Himself, about love, life and the intricacies in between. For this week’s blog, I am embarking into the realms of Australian music once again- and with artists prior to this week that I’ve delved into that are Australian, from Delta Goodrem, Guy Sebastian, The McClymonts and the Newsboys, to for KING AND COUNTRY, Hillsong and Tina Arena; I have again put my hand into the proverbial hat of the plethora of Australian music artists at my disposal, and I’ve since pulled one out- Keith Urban.